Ray Donovan, Dexter: Premieres Score Record Ratings for Showtime

The folks at Showtime are very happy campers. Sunday’s debut of Ray Donovan drew the best ratings for an original series premiere in the history of the cable channel.

What’s more, the final season opener of Dexter delivered that show’s highest-rated premiere in its eight season history.

Here are the specifics:

“RAY DONOVAN” DELIVERS SHOWTIME’S HIGHEST-RATED ORIGINAL SERIES PREMIERE EVER WITH 3.04 MILLION VIEWERS

For The Eighth Season In A Row, “DEXTER(R)” Breaks Viewership Records With Best Ever Premiere

The momentum and growth of SHOWTIME(R) original series continued last night with the record breaking premiere of RAY DONOVAN, starring Emmy(R) and Golden Globe(R) Award nominee Liev Schreiber. And, with the eighth and final season premiere of DEXTER at 9 p.m.

RAY DONOVAN delivered the network’s highest-rated original series premiere ever with 1.35 million viewers at 10 p.m., besting all other SHOWTIME freshman comedy and drama series including HOMELAND’s blockbuster premiere in 2011 by 25 percent (vs. 1.08 million). The series delivered 2.22 million viewers for the night, the highest-rated freshman series night of any SHOWTIME series to-date, up a staggering 61 percent versus the season one premiere night for HOMELAND (with 1.38 million viewers).

RAY DONOVAN was sampled across multiple platforms in the two weeks leading up to its premiere last night. Within that period, an additional 816,000 SHOWTIME subscribers sampled the series on SHOWTIME ON DEMAND(R) and SHOWTIME ANYTIME(R), bringing the RAY DONOVAN series premiere total to 3.04 million viewers. Additional online sampling data will be available in the upcoming weeks.

The eighth and final season premiere of DEXTER continued to break records, ranking as the series’ highest-rated premiere ever, a record which the show continues to break season after season. DEXTER’s debut last night delivered 2.5 million viewers at 9 p.m., up four percent vs. its season seven premiere (2.4 million). The series delivered 3.2 million viewers for the night, up five percent versus season seven (3.04 million). In seasons past, 64 percent of viewers tuned in to DEXTER after its Sunday 9 p.m. episode – watching replays, via DVR, On Demand and authenticated viewing.

well considering no one really cares about weeds, and dexter is record breaking good it seems to be a smart move. knowing it is the final season amped people up to click in knowing closure is sure to come. not to mention the creators/writers are doing a good job and have a full picture of how this classic show will end, unlike weeds which is all over the place with no aim or purpose..it could easily be canned and shelved with half a season to go… dexter like breaking bad is going out the way a great, really great doesnt even do it jusstice, show should….

I’m saying this, because I know Dexter was gonna be one of those series’ that I was gonna watch once it was over. It just really seems dumb for them to for them to confirm the eighth season was the last so early but confirm the eighth season of Weeds was gonna be the last season, when half the season was already shot. Now it’ll only be eight seasons long, when I watch the whole thing.